A former Illinois deputy has been sentenced to 20 years for fatally shooting Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 for help.

Sean Grayson, 31, was convicted in October of second-degree murder. Grayson, who is white, received the maximum possible sentence and has been in police custody since being charged in the killing.

Massey’s family members, who were sitting in the court, celebrated his sentence with a loud cheer: “Yes!” The judge admonished them.

Grayson apologized during the sentencing, saying he wished he could bring Massey back and spare her family the pain he caused.

“I made a lot of mistakes that night. There were points when I should’ve acted, and I didn’t. I froze,” he said. “I made terrible decisions that night. I’m sorry.”

  • Nailbar@sopuli.xyz
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    10 days ago

    Someone said in a separate post, where the same question was brought up, that it’s because Black refers to a specific cultural group while white doesn’t (that’d be Irish-American or whatever)

    You don’t have to always assume it’s malice.

    • Hathaway@lemmy.zip
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      10 days ago

      Ah yes, the historic culture of “black” stretching from New Zealand to Africa and South Asia and South America. You know, all very monocultured.

      The largest /s imaginable

    • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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      10 days ago

      Black people aren’t a monolith either though. They come from all over the world, just like white people. That explanation is offensive in a totally different way.

    • MiddleAgesModem@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      So that means everyone with a certain skin tone MUST be in the same specific cultural group?

      It’s not malice but it is mistaken. “White” is used as a general term as well.